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Which preposition a verb, noun or adjective demands — and the two errors every Spanish speaker makes, on both continents.
The control text · argumentative
Prohibir el celular en clase parece una medida drástica, pero los datos sugieren que funciona. En las escuelas que adoptaron la restricción, los docentes reportan menos interrupciones y una caída en los casos de acoso digital. Es cierto que el aparato también sirve para estudiar, y sería ingenuo negarlo. Aun así, el costo de la distracción recae sobre quienes tienen menos apoyo en casa. Mientras no haya pruebas de que el uso libre mejora el aprendizaje, la carga de la prueba corresponde a quien defiende el permiso.
Where the two part
Latin American · the base
Dequeísmo and queísmo are both widespread in speech and both marked in writing.
Peninsular · the contrast
The same two errors, equally widespread. This is a domain where the two standards agree completely and the speech does not.
10 options
| Sense | Preposition |
|---|---|
| purpose, destination, deadline | para — para estudiar, Anchor B |
| cause, exchange, duration, agent | por — por escrito, Anchor A |
The tellBoth anchors contain one. Para estudiar is purpose; por escrito is manner.
The distinction every learner knows, and at C1 it is mostly settled.
The fixed phrases are where it still bites, and they are lexical rather than rule-governed.
Pienso de que es un error — wrong. Pienso que.
The tellA de before que where the verb does not govern one.
On the sheet because it is extremely common in speech across the entire Spanish-speaking world, and it is the error a marker is specifically watching for.
Marked wrong everywhere in writing, in both standards, with no regional defence available.
Me alegro que hayas venido — wrong. Me alegro de que.
The tellA missing de where the verb governs one.
The mirror image of dequeísmo, equally common, and less often noticed.
The test — substitute eso and see whether de eso or eso fits — requires stopping mid-sentence.
Vi a Juan. · Busco a alguien que pueda ayudarme.
The tellAn a before a specific human direct object.
A rule with no equivalent in Portuguese, Italian or English — genuinely Spanish, and its absence is a visible error.
It interacts with specificity: busco un empleado and busco a un empleado differ, and that interacts with the subjunctive on GRM-03g.
acordarse de · darse cuenta de · depender de · tratarse de — Anchor A
The tellAnchor A contains se trata de.
A learnable list, and several are extremely high frequency.
This is exactly the list queísmo attacks, so knowing it is the defence.
empezar a · aprender a · negarse a · corresponder a — Anchor B
The tellAnchor B closes on corresponde a quien defiende.
Another closed list, and it partly overlaps with Italian's riuscire a class.
Only partly. Italian and Spanish disagree on enough members that the transfer misleads.
insistir en · confiar en · pensar en — and pensar de means something else
The tellPensar en is to think about; pensar de is to have an opinion of.
The same pair Italian has with pensare a and pensare di — and the prepositions are different, which is the trap.
Italian says a where Spanish says en. One of the cleanest cross-language interference points in the folder.
capaz de · dispuesto a · la carga de la prueba — Anchor B
The tellAnchor B contains one. Nouns and adjectives govern as firmly as verbs.
It feeds directly into nominalised formal writing on DIS-04.
Usually taught late or not at all, so errors here survive to C1 uncorrected.
| Sense | Spanish | Portuguese offers |
|---|---|---|
| to like | gustar + dative | gostar de — misleads |
| to need | necesitar + bare | precisar de — misleads |
| to think about | pensar en | pensar em — agrees |
The tellA de arriving from Portuguese where Spanish takes nothing.
Named because Portuguese adds prepositions Spanish does not, so the error has a direction and a signature.
Gustar de and necesitar de both exist marginally in Spanish, which makes them feel possible.
| Sense | Spanish | Italian offers |
|---|---|---|
| to think about | pensar en | pensare a |
| to manage | lograr / conseguir + bare | riuscire a |
| to try | tratar de | cercare di — agrees |
The tellAn a arriving from Italian where Spanish takes en or nothing.
Named alongside its Portuguese counterpart because the two point in different directions on the same verbs.
Three systems, partial overlap, and no way to tell from inside which one is speaking.